Saturday, June 6, 2009

VANCOUVER - Actor David Carradine's death came as a result of a kinky sex act gone horribly wrong, Thai police said Friday.

Officers in Bangkok are saying the famed star of the 70s adventure series Kung Fu perished from auto-erotic asphyxiation.

“There was a rope tied around his neck and another rope tied to his genitals, and the two ropes were tied together and they hung in the closet,” Lieutenant General Worapong Siewpreecha was reported saying in the Times Online. “Under these circumstances we cannot be sure that he committed suicide."

The officer said Carradine and his fellow crew members shooting the film Stretch "“drank beer from morning until evening the day before he was found dead.”

Carradine's death has prompted a Vancouver producer to push back the shooting of the feature film Portland, in which Carradine had a pivotal role. The drama, about how the death of a young man affects those closest to him, was to begin shooting in July in Portland, Oregon and Laguna Beach, Calif.

That date has now been moved back to August or September, as the producers seek to recast an actor for Carradine’s role of a priest who helps the young friends come to grips with their loss.

Erotic asphyxiation involves deliberately cutting off oxygen to the brain for sexual arousal.

It is also called asphyxiophilia, autoerotic asphyxia, scarfing, kotzwarraism, or breath control play, according to Wikipedia, which adds that a person engaging in the activity is sometimes called "a gasper.

Because of its sometimes dangerous outcome, the practice is considered a disorder by psychiatrists.

Oxygen deprivation through auto-erotic asphyxiation was first reported in the 17th century as a treatment for erectile dysfunction and impotence, notes Wikipedia. It usually involves hanging, suffocation with a plastic bag and/or self strangulation.

Between 250 and 1,000 deaths are reported annually from the practice in the United States alone.